My Waiting Room

Hey…. Welcome to another amazing time of the year. The first half of the year is gone and we are in the 2nd half. Its that time when many people sit to reflect over the past 6 months, to evaluate the successes or failures encountered. Some people have recorded successes upon successes while others have countless numbers of failures. Still, others do not know what tag to give their current circumstance, if to call it a success or a failure because they are still waiting. I guess i fall into this zone. However, what do you do in this waiting room? From the caption of this article, one will think its solely about waiting for a spouse, etc. But a little away from that, i am here to talk about WAITING ON GOD FOR YOUR PRAYERS TO BE ANSWERED. Situations in life has a way of taking a toll on us, after seeing the accomplishments of your friends in such a short time whereas you are still on one spot. We are often tempted to spend hours on our knees asking the WHY questions. When facing those situations how can i/you handle it? I will share with you 3 vital keys.

1.) Be Optimistic:

One of the main causes of failure is pessimism. When you give up or lose hope about the outcome of an event. Pessimism brings about fear, lack of confidence and impatience. When you get impatient, you start running around, trying your hands on everything, spending more money and resources but still getting nothing done and no answer. Learn to look at the brighter sight of life. Every dark cloud has a silver lining. Your answer may just be at the corner but you get impatient and by pass the answer to your prayers.

Psalms 30:5 “For His anger lasts only a short time. But His favor is for life. Crying may last for a night, but joy comes with the new day.”

Romans 8:18 “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

2.)Focus on what you heard from God or the Passion He put in you:

In this season, its very easy to start questioning yourself if the project you started or are waiting for results was worth starting in the first place. You may have heard a word from the Lord about doing something this year and at that time you had the strong conviction in your spirit that God wanted you to head in that direction. But now, you keep asking yourself if it was really God’s leading or you were led by your emotions? This is the point the devil will take greatest advantage of. He will tempt you to start doing other things, spending money on new projects, etc. This always ends in the words “had i known, i should have waited.” If God placed something in your spirit or gave you direction from his word about something, always look back to that season, the circumstances that brought forth that word about the project or whatever you are waiting for. Did it come directly from his word, vision, etc during a season of fasting and prayers, or did it come by Godly counsel? Reflect on where you came from and how far He has brought you to know that He is too faithful to fail at this point. Hold on to the word you received.

Habakkuk 2:3 “For the revelation awaits an appointed time, it speaks of the end and will not prove false.Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

3.) Wait in Praise and Stay Committed to Stewardship: 

Its very clear to get tired of praying. I have often heard people say “I have prayed and prayed but nothing is happening. I have asked God to show me a sign but He is quiet.” After all these statements, we decide to forget about God and lead ourselves. Like I said before, one of the ways the devil takes hold of us is through impatience. It pays to keep reminding yourself of who you are by redemption. Christ took away all our infirmities and by infirmities it includes failures. So as a redeemed child of God, you are created to be envied not pitied. As you remind yourself of who you are, remind God of who He is. That is done through praise. If you want pocket money from your father, you will do all the work in the house and every other thing to please him so that he will give you the money. But why is it different when it comes to waiting on God? If you focus on pleasing him through praise and stewardship, He will obviously be pleased and grant your request. By stewardship i mean stay committed to the course of the kingdom. How do you do this?

• Pray for the problems of other people: Job 42:10 “After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.”
• Commit yourself to acts of kindness and love to everyone : 1Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
• Maintain your joy by trusting God and waiting in expectation: 2Timothy 1:12  “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.”       Habakkuk 2:1 “I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost.There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint.
• PRAISE: Prayer takes up the requests but praise brings down the answers. As you praise him with words from your mouth, he is prompted to act in your favor.  Numbers 14:28 “So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say”

Hope these few tips will help us in our waiting room.

Gwenelyne.